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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Guess I'm in the minority, since I find my Kurzweil patchmap useful.** Problem is, even though BB permits its use, they didn't facilitate access to it when they added program change functionality at the bar level (F5). Actually a number of us would appreciate that feature, as evidenced here. I'm anxious to see if this improvement made it to the imminent upgrade.

-Ron



Sure, a lot of people set up their keyboards to work with Biab. I have the PC2X, no patchmap for that one but If I really wanted to I could create one myself using the patchmap grid. For me anyway, I don't want a 55 pound 88 key keyboard set up in front of my computer all the time so I've never bothered working that out. I use Biab to sketch out a tune using Forte and if I really want to do something with it, I put it into RB and use Sample Tank, Garritan, Jamstix and all the RT's.

Bob


Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Quote:

Sure, a lot of people set up their keyboards to work with Biab. I have the PC2X, no patchmap for that one but If I really wanted to I could create one myself using the patchmap grid. For me anyway, I don't want a 55 pound 88 key keyboard set up in front of my computer all the time so I've never bothered working that out. I use Biab to sketch out a tune using Forte and if I really want to do something with it, I put it into RB and use Sample Tank, Garritan, Jamstix and all the RT's.


Bob, I just PM'd you a PC2X patch map. Might save a little time if you ever go that way. I've got the keyboard near the computer, and since I don't gig, it's a stable setup. I sketch with softsynths too. While I use the patchmap, I don't mean to minimize the bank issues. I'd use the keyboard sounds even more often in early stages if BB permitted easier access to the other banks. (As you know, the GM bank on the PC2X is 1, not 0, and that's not adjustable within BB, so I do find myself not infrequently locking the keyboard into GM mode for convenience and foregoing the patchmap.)

-Ron

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WSS




Biab is GM based and while you can use non GM synths by using patch maps or just manually assigning an instrument to each channel it's not worth the effort for most of us so we only look at GM stuff and the choices are very limited. You've got the VSC, Forte and Bandstand and that's basically it for softsynths and hardware it's the SD2. All the other hardware synths like my Kurzweil, Rolands etc, may have a GM soundbank but it's lame compared to their primary banks. Some of the high end arranger keyboards have good GM sounds but you're talking 2-3 grand for one of those.

Bob




This is the point, IMHO. For instance, does anybody here use VIR2 Instruments VI ONE? It has a GM bank, I see, but does this mean that automatically it sounds the "right" instruments at the "right" place (VSC and Forte style, I mean), OR do I have to pick every time, for each song, all the instruments, even if in the GM bank?

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Has anyone been able to get Dimension Pro to work properly with RealBand? I find that it behaves just like it does in Band in a Box, ie, if I change an instrument for one track it is changed for others as well. How do I use multiple Dim Pro instruments?


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So no one's been able to get this to work?



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Dim Pro uses Elements. There are 4 Elements available with each instance and each Element can have it's own patch and midi channel. The problem with using it with Biab is Biab only has one midi port so you can only use one instance of Dim Pro. That means a maximum of 4 instruments. That could be enough for a lot of styles though and is plenty if you're using some Real Tracks or the Real Drums. I think your problem is you're not assigning the correct midi channel to each Element. As was pointed out above, it's gets tedious to have to go into Dim Pro and load a different patch every time you want to change an instrument in Biab. That's why most of us use use a dedicated GM synth because all the proper instruments are already loaded and ready for Biab to call them up.
Real Band is a different story. It has 16 midi ports so you could load 4 instances of Dim Pro and have 16 instruments available on 16 different midi channels.

Bob


Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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